Westhaven Group founder John Ulmer is getting out of prison.

At a brief hearing today, Lucas County Common Pleas Judge Stacy Cook granted Ulmer’s motion for judicial release some six years after he began serving a 10-year sentence for swindling investors in his real estate company out of more than $15 million.

Ulmer, 69, was placed on community control for five years and ordered to spend the first nine months in the Lucas County Work Release Program. Judge Cook told Ulmer that making restitution to his many victims was the first priority.

Judge Cook said Ulmer may not leave Ohio without permission of the court despite the fact that his wife and two sons relocated to Florida while he was in prison.

“I’m not in a situation where I believe you get to retire to Florida because ultimately there are many people that wanted to get there too and lost their life savings,” she said. “…That just is patently wrong to me on many levels.”

First Published May 19, 2015, 3:04 p.m.